The Wimbledon champion set up the meeting with his old junior rival by producing one of his most impressive French Open performances in a 6-4 7-5 7-6 (7/3) win over Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.

Murray and Monfils first met when the Scot was 10 and the Frenchman 11 and have been good friends ever since.

Monfils is one of the most spectacular players on tour and a huge favourite with the Paris crowd having grown up in the city.

The other quarter-final in the top half of the draw pits Rafael Nadal against David Ferrer in a repeat of last year's final, giving tournament organisers a headache as only one is likely to be on Court Philippe Chatrier.

Murray's only experience this year on Chatrier, where he would definitely play a semi-final, has been a pre-tournament practice session but he may be best served staying on Suzanne Lenglen.

Verdasco described the court as much faster than Chatrier, saying: "It was not clay at all."

Murray said: "I'll play whichever court they decide. The atmosphere will be great whichever court it's on."

The Scot will be happy to have a day away from Lenglen on Tuesday after playing on it for three straight days.

His epic third-round clash with Philipp Kohlschreiber ran over two days before Murray finally made it across the finish line at 12-10 in the fifth set on Sunday.

He deployed an aggressive game plan against Verdasco partly as a result of fatigue and it worked brilliantly.

The only slight wobble came in the third set when, having led by a break and missed numerous other chances, Verdasco fought back to take it to a tie-break.

But Murray won four successive points from 3-3 to clinch victory after two hours and 54 minutes.

The Scot said: "I was tired after the match against Kohlschreiber. It was a long match. It was mentally draining as well when you don't have that day to recover and you're coming back on court at 7-7.

"Obviously you think about the match a lot in that period between when you stop and once you get back out on the court and then the 45 minutes or so that you're on the court is very tense as well.

"I thought I dictated as many points as I could today. It's not always possible, because you're playing against top tennis players. He's got a lot of firepower as well. I did a good job of that. It was a very good match."